Tag Archive: customers

Good reminder that having more choices is not always better for the consumer! Consumer confusion due to too many choices is a real thing (I believe that Malcolm Gladwell said (in “Blink”) that people can only handle 7 choices or less at a time). Offering less options, while it sounds like a negative, should not always be thought of as “robbing the customer”! As long as you are making sure that you’re not including inane, unnecessary options, and the options that you are offering are relevant, quality options, then you’re doing the customer a service by being concise!

I was recently working with a Contractor Customer of mine on some advertising he wanted to receive Co-Op funding on.

(For those unfamiliar with Co-Op; it is when the manufacturer or supplier of a product/service provides money to the business doing the advertising in exchange for space in the advertisement ie: Coca Cola helping to pay for a flyer from your local grocery store. In almost all instances, there are various requirements to receive Co-Op funding; the biggest no no is advertising multiple competitors in one advertisement.)

Back to my story: This contractor had previously used an advertisement that showcased six competing brands. His thought process was fairly logical: By advertising all six products I get calls from everyone. Then when I go the their house I sell them your brand (your referring to me and the product I sell). The problem was that his advertising package cost was raised…

A Yale research team did a study on monkeys & the concept of money and found, among other things (and please pardon my oversimplification) that the vast majority of the monkeys tested preferred to knowingly get less with a 50% chance of getting extra as a bonus than getting more with a 50% chance of getting that extra taken away.

Even though 50% of the time the monkeys ended up with the same amount, the monkeys preferred a potential bonus instead of a potential loss (and this, of course, is a real-life example of the concept of loss aversion).

This brings me to my picture of the day:

Come on, Lowes!!! What are numbers 3 and 6 of your “Customer Service Comes First” sign?!?!? (And why don’t you have the decency to give your Spanish-speaking customers the respect of using a tape color that matches the background color of their portion of your sign?!?!)

This has to be #1 in the “how to lose (or at least greatly dissatisfy) customers” handbook!

A better move on Lowes’ part would be to take the sign down temporarily and get it printed without numbers 3 and 6, but don’t make such a public display about how there are services that you are not willing to do for your customers!